“…What?”
“Didn’t you know? The tea that Countess Anabel offered you, its effect is to make women infertile. So don’t dwell on the child you wouldn’t have been able to have anyway, and worry about your own body. What is this state you’re in? You’re supposed to be a Duchess of Bedford.”
Lizzy’s large eyes wavered, as if she really didn’t know anything.
Drinking the tea once or twice wouldn’t have made her infertile. Knowing that, Ariella smiled at Lizzy as if she didn’t know.
“…I warned you, Lizzy. There will be many more painful things to come.”
Her gaze swept over Lizzy’s cheeks and lips. The sight of them swelling up red and puffy was quite pitiful.
It must have hurt quite a bit. She could empathize, knowing how big and thick Duke Bedford’s hands were.
“Do you still think the pain is short, and the position is eternal?”
Lizzy sat blankly, staring at Ariella for a long time. Then, she opened her mouth wide and laughed.
“Ha, haha… Ahahahaha! Hahaha!”
Watching her clutching her stomach and bursting into a hearty laugh, Ariella suspected she had lost her mind.
It wouldn’t be strange if she had. This Bedford was a place that drove people crazy. It was possible that Lizzy had lost her reason, just as she had.
“Ariella, our noble Miss Ariella!”
*Rustle, rustle.* The sound of clothes dragging echoed through the dining room, where only the two Bedford duchesses remained.
Lizzy, dragging her leg, crawled to where Ariella was sitting and reached out to grab Ariella’s knee.
“Is this pain to you, unhappiness? The unhappiness you told me to endure?”
“…”
“No, Arrie! This kind of thing can’t even be called unhappiness! You’ve been spoiled, growing up like a flower in a greenhouse, so you’re mistaken. This is pain and unhappiness! But it’s not!”
Her piercing voice was similar to a scream.
This was the first time Lizzy had revealed such desperate emotions.
What had stimulated her so much? The fact that she had become infertile? Or the despair of having to live with an impotent man for the rest of her life?
No, that wasn’t it. Ariella sensed it as she looked at Lizzy, who was clutching her leg. There must be another reason why Lizzy was making that expression.
Ariella instinctively knew that what Lizzy was about to say was the real beginning of all this.
“…Arrie, didn’t you say that your benefactor’s last words were ‘I’m sorry’?”
The mention of a person she had not expected caused Ariella’s face, which had been unwavering until now, to twitch for a moment.
“It’s ridiculous. What did she have to be sorry for? She took me in and raised me when I would have starved to death if she had left me alone. She even found my biological father after raising me with all her heart, so what was she sorry for?”
There was no way Lizzy would have brought up Kaia for no reason.
The moment she tried to retrace what she had missed, the voices of the Chestnut couple swirled through her head like a storm.
“Lizzy, that child, she’s a year younger than you said.”
“The sister left that scatterbrain in our care and then stopped sending money on time…”
“She was quite a bit older…”
“Why, she was quite a pretty woman. Don’t you remember? Her name was Lucy, or Sia…”
*Thud.* It sounded like something was falling. Along with that, the face of her beloved benefactor was drawn over Lizzy’s face.
“Could it be, you…”
“That’s right, she’s my sister. The one and only family member who threw me into hell when I was only four years old, my sister, Lucretia.”
It felt like all the puzzle pieces were finally falling into place.
Why Lizzy always grimaced whenever Kaia was mentioned, as if he were a sore subject. Why Lizzy hated her, who had done nothing wrong, so much.
Ariella finally felt like she understood the reason.
“Why did she do that? We were close. Even though there was a big age difference, we promised to stay together for life, since we were the only family left in this world. But why did she abandon me without a word?”
Even after more than a decade, Lizzy tilted her head, her eyebrows furrowed, as if she still didn’t know the reason.
“I’m her own sister, and she didn’t even bother to visit me, whether I lived or died. Why did she save and raise you?”
Her eyes, which had been moving up and down without focus, locked onto Ariella again. The emptiness in her violet eyes was once again replaced by a burning hatred.
